KS3 Music key terms

119 terms with short definitions you can learn for the exam. Type to filter the list.

Key terms glossary 105

A tempo: Return to the original speed after a change of tempo.
Accelerando: Gradually getting faster.
Accent: Playing a note with extra force, shown by the sign >.
Adagio: A slow tempo.
Alberti bass: A broken-chord accompaniment pattern (low, high, middle, high), common in Classical period piano music.
Allegro: A fast, lively tempo.
Anacrusis: A note or notes before the first full bar of a piece. Also called an upbeat.
Andante: A tempo at a walking pace.
Arco: An instruction to string players to play with the bow.
Arpeggio: The notes of a chord played one after another.
Atonal: Music with no key or home note.
Balance: How the volume of each part compares with the others, so the important parts can be heard.
Bar: A section of music containing a fixed number of beats, marked off by bar lines.
Bass clef: The clef for low instruments and the piano left hand. Lines from the bottom: G B D F A; spaces: A C E G.
Basso continuo: In Baroque music, a bass line and harmony played throughout, usually by a cello and a harpsichord.
Binary form: A structure in two sections: A B.
Blue notes: Flattened 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the scale, typical of the blues.
Bpm: Beats per minute: a measure of tempo.
Cadence: The pair of chords at the end of a phrase, such as a perfect cadence (V to I).
Call and response: A leader plays or sings a phrase (the call) and a group answers (the response).
Canon: A piece in which one part strictly imitates another, starting later. A round is a simple canon.
Chord: Two or more notes played at the same time.
Chord symbol: Letters naming a chord, written above a melody or in a chord chart: C is C major, Cm is C minor, C7 is a C seventh chord.
Chromatic: Using notes outside the key, or moving by semitones.
Coda: An ending section. Italian for 'tail'.
Compound time: A metre where each beat divides into three, such as 6/8 (two dotted crotchet beats).
Concerto: A piece for a soloist (or soloists) and orchestra.
Conjunct: A melody moving by step, to neighbouring notes.
Crescendo: Gradually getting louder.
Crotchet: A note lasting one beat in 4/4 time.
DAW: Digital audio workstation: software for recording, editing and mixing music.
Diegetic music: Music in a film that the characters can hear, such as a radio playing in the scene.
Diminuendo: Gradually getting quieter. Also called decrescendo.
Diminution: Making the note values of a motif shorter, often halving them.
Disjunct: A melody moving by leaps rather than steps.
Dissonance: Notes that clash and sound tense.
Dominant: The 5th note of a scale, and the chord built on it (chord V).
Drone: A long held or repeated note or notes, often the 1st and 5th of the scale.
Dynamics: How loud or quiet music is.
Ensemble: A group of performers, from a duet to an orchestra.
EQ: Equalisation: boosting or cutting bass, middle or treble frequencies of a sound.
Forte: Loud (f). Fortissimo (ff) means very loud.
Graphic score: A score that uses pictures, shapes, lines or colours instead of, or as well as, standard notation.
Heterophonic: A texture in which different versions of the same melody are played at the same time.
Homophonic: A texture of a melody with chordal accompaniment, or parts moving in the same rhythm.
Hook: The catchiest part of a song, often in the chorus.
Imitation: When one part copies a phrase played by another part a little later.
Improvise: To make up music as you play or sing.
Interrupted cadence: Chord V followed by chord vi: it sounds like a surprise.
Inversion: Turning a motif upside down, so steps up become steps down.
Key signature: The sharps or flats written after the clef, showing the key of the music.
Largo: A very slow, broad tempo.
Legato: Smooth and joined.
Leitmotif: A short musical idea linked to a character, place or idea, as in Wagner's operas and many film scores.
Melisma: One syllable of a word sung over several notes.
MIDI: Musical Instrument Digital Interface: instructions about notes (pitch, timing, velocity), turned into sound by an instrument.
Minim: A note lasting two beats in 4/4 time.
Monophonic: A texture of a single melody line with no accompaniment.
Motif: A short musical idea that can be repeated and developed.
Octave: The distance from one note to the next note with the same letter name, 12 semitones.
Ostinato: A short pattern repeated over and over.
Panning: Placing a sound to the left or right in stereo.
Pentatonic scale: A scale of five notes, such as C D E G A.
Perfect cadence: Chord V followed by chord I: it sounds finished.
Piano (dynamic): Quiet (p). Pianissimo (pp) means very quiet.
Pitch: How high or low a sound is.
Pizzicato: An instruction to string players to pluck the strings.
Plagal cadence: Chord IV followed by chord I: a softer finished sound.
Polyphonic: A texture of two or more independent melodies at the same time. Also called contrapuntal.
Polyrhythm: Several different rhythms played at the same time.
Programme music: Music that tells a story or paints a picture.
Pulse: The steady beat of the music.
Quantise: In a DAW, moving notes so they line up exactly with the beat grid.
Quaver: A note lasting half a beat in 4/4 time.
Raga: In Indian classical music, a set of notes with rules, characteristic phrases and a mood, used for melody and improvisation.
Rallentando: Gradually getting slower. Also ritardando.
Relative minor: The minor key that shares a key signature with a major key, starting on its 6th note, such as A minor and C major.
Retrograde: Playing a motif backwards.
Reverb: An effect that adds a sense of space, like the echoes of a hall.
Riff: A short repeated pattern in popular music.
Rondo form: A structure where the main section keeps returning: A B A C A.
Rubato: Speeding up and slowing down freely for expression.
Semibreve: A note lasting four beats in 4/4 time.
Semiquaver: A note lasting a quarter of a beat in 4/4 time.
Semitone: The smallest step on a keyboard, from one key to the very next.
Sequence: A motif repeated starting on a higher or lower note.
Sonata form: A structure in three main sections: exposition, development and recapitulation.
Staccato: Short and detached, shown by a dot above or below the note.
Stave: The five lines and four spaces on which music is written. Also called the staff.
Structure: How a piece of music is organised into sections.
Symphony: A large piece for orchestra, usually in several movements (four in the Classical period).
Syncopation: Accents placed off the beat, between the main beats.
Tab (tablature): Notation for guitar and bass: one line per string, with numbers showing which fret to press. 0 means an open string.
Tala: In Indian classical music, a repeating rhythmic cycle, such as teental (16 beats).
Tempo: The speed of the music.
Ternary form: A structure in three sections, with the first returning: A B A.
Texture: How many layers of sound there are and how they fit together.
Timbre: The tone colour of a sound, which makes one instrument or voice sound different from another.
Time signature: Two numbers at the start of the music: the top gives beats per bar, the bottom the type of beat.
Tone: A step of two semitones.
Tonic: The first note of a scale: the home note of a key.
Treble clef: The clef for higher instruments and voices. Lines from the bottom: E G B D F; spaces: F A C E.
Triad: A three-note chord: root, third and fifth.
Triplet: Three notes played in the time of two.
Unison: Everyone playing or singing the same notes at the same time.

Facts to know 14

12-bar blues: I I I I, IV IV I I, V IV I I.
Bass clef: Lines G B D F A (Good Boys Deserve Football Always); spaces A C E G. Middle C is one ledger line above.
Cadences: Perfect V to I; imperfect ends on V; plagal IV to I; interrupted V to vi.
Dynamics, quiet to loud: pp (pianissimo), p (piano), mp (mezzo piano), mf (mezzo forte), f (forte), ff (fortissimo).
Key signatures: C major and A minor: none. G major and E minor: F sharp. F major and D minor: B flat. D major and B minor: F sharp, C sharp.
Major scale pattern: Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone (T T S T T T S).
Natural minor scale pattern: Tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone (T S T T S T T).
Note values: Semibreve 4 beats; minim 2; crotchet 1; quaver a half; semiquaver a quarter. A dot adds half the note's value.
Orchestra families: Strings, woodwind, brass and percussion, grouped by how the sound is made.
Primary chords in C major: I = C (C E G), IV = F (F A C), V = G (G B D).
Teental: A tala of 16 beats (4 + 4 + 4 + 4). Beat 1 is called sam.
Tempo, slow to fast: Largo, adagio, andante, moderato, allegro, presto. Accelerando: getting faster. Rallentando: getting slower.
Treble clef: Lines E G B D F (Every Good Boy Deserves Football); spaces F A C E. Middle C is one ledger line below.
Western classical periods: Baroque about 1600 to 1750; Classical about 1750 to 1820; Romantic about 1820 to 1900; then 20th century. Dates are approximate.

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